December stories from the WES Newspaper Club. Check us out online for more news and pictures! thewesbuzz.co m / Spotlight On: Mrs. Steinmetz By Tate Marcinkoski I had an opportunity to sit down and interview Mrs. Steinmetz, our school s strings teacher. Mrs. Steinmetz has been teaching in the Radnor Township School District for 20 years. She works at all three elementary schools and teaches fourth and fifth graders how to play the violin, viola, cello and bass. I am learning violin with her this year, and I can tell you that she is an awesome teacher. Violin is hard, but she makes it so much fun! Mrs. Steinmetz studied music at Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia and at West Chester University in West Chester. She can play five different instruments. She started learning piano in the fourth grade and violin in the ninth grade. In her free time, she plays in a local string quartet. Mrs. Steinmetz told me that she loves teaching music because she enjoys working with kids and sharing her knowledge with them. Her advice to beginner 1/12
students is to stick to a steady practice schedule. She said it is important to practice every day. Mrs. Steinmetz favorite composer is Johann Sebastian Bach because he wrote such a wide variety of music. She especially likes to listen to his solo violin sonatas and partitas. When she is not teaching, Mrs. Steinmetz enjoys reading, getting together with friends and spending time with her family. She also has a dog, Melody (can you guess where her name came from?), who she likes to take for walks. If you are interested in learning to play an instrument at WES, here is what you need to know. You can choose to start a string instrument in fourth grade and a band instrument in fifth grade. Each week you have a 25 minute group lesson with about three to five other students. Mrs. Steinmetz teaches the strings students along with another teacher, Mr. Scinto, who also teaches all of the band students. In the spring, rehearsals for the WES orchestra and band begin. All students who are part of the music lessons program participate. Rehearsals take place once a week in the morning before school starts. Then the students perform a special concert in May for their parents and the rest of the WES students. 2/12
Get Ready for Winter Stations! By Danby G. Morrison I m going to tell you what I remember about Winter Stations. The first thing is there is this game that lots of kids like, it is called Rescue Santa. It s a game where you go across an obstacle of gym mats, then you go on this big mat and you flip it over by saying HO HO HO HERE I GO! Now another game, which is my favorite, is where you ride on this thing and you control it by these handlebars and you sit on it. There is also rock-climbing, which I m not very good at, but sometimes I try. And another fun one is these ropes that you swing on and our gym teacher, Mr. Blaha, pretends they are icicles. A lot of kids really like winter stations, but some activities to some kids can seem dangerous. Like for the rope swinging, if you re too scared, then you could fall off and get hurt. But the whole point of winter stations is to have fun. So don t be too worried about that. By Connor Walsh There is a very special tradition coming up Winter Stations! Mr. Blaha, our gym teacher, created Winter Stations over 30 years ago and it is still going on. Winter Stations takes place in our gym before winter break. Winter Stations is made up of many different activities such as Ice Hockey, Skating, Snowmobile, Icicle Swing, Mush Mush, Rescue Santa, Snow Balls and Ice Wall. Mr. Blaha s favorite station is Rescue Santa and Mr. Tracey s thinks Ice Hockey is the best. Icicle swings and Rescue Santa are the most popular stations among the WES students. Emma Hyde, a 5th grader, loves all of the stations but her favorite is Icicle Swings. She loves when swinging, she gets to shoot baskets. I know myself and many of my friends are counting down the days until Winter Stations begin. I hope the tradition continues for many more years. 3/12
Mrs. Fields, WES Amazing Music Teacher By Leah Zhang Hi!!! Today I am going to tell you about Mrs. Fields. But first, I am going to tell you two facts about her. She sings in the church every weekend. And, Mrs. Fields is married. Okay, here are some questions for Mrs. Fields. Then, there below are the results. And now, these are my questions: 1. Did she ever move? 2. What is her favorite food? 3. Does she like her job? 4. Does she have any kids? 5. What instruments does she play other than the piano? 6. And the last question is: Where did she grow up? And, as I promised, here are my answers for my questions: 1. Yes!! She moved several times and she lived in: Florida, North Carolina, and her latest move was here to Pennsylvania four years ago. 2. Her favorite food is French fries. 3. Yes, of course!! It s because that she gets to sing the whole day. 4. Yes!! She has three boys. 5. She plays a tiny bit of guitar, but other than that, she just plays the piano. 6. A tiny beach town in South Florida named Jensen Beach. That is where she grew up. I am sorry, but this is the end of the story for the report of Mrs. Fields so, Bye!! 4/12
Don t Miss the Holiday Wonderland at Longwood Gardens By Tate Marcinkoski One of my favorite holiday traditions is to go to Longwood Gardens with my family. Some of you may know Longwood as the place with all of the flower exhibits, but during December the gardens are transformed into a spectacle of twinkling lights. We have visited every year since we moved to Wayne, and it is a highlight of the season for me. When you first enter the grounds, you will notice that most of the trees are covered in beautiful colored lights. There are many kinds of lights used to decorate the trees different shapes and both single colors like red, green, blue and white and multicolored versions. This year, Longwood used more than a half million lights to decorate the trees. Wow, that is a lot of electricity! In addition to lights, you will experience the new fountains, which opened this summer and are choreographed to music. The fountains turn different colors and, occasionally, the jets of water are topped with real flames. After walking around in the cold for a while, you will probably want a place to warm up. You can stop at one of the cozy fire pits, where there are sometimes carolers singing. If the fire pits don t warm you, you can get hot chocolate and cookies in one of the heated tents. They also have pretzels and brownies, as well as special drinks and snacks for adults. At the center of the garden, there is a huge, ornate greenhouse filled with tons of tropical plants. During the holidays, there are more than 50 evergreen trees inside, decorated with ornaments in different themes, including one magical tree that spins. Every year, Longwood has a special new display in the main atrium of the greenhouse. This year s French-inspired design features hundreds of floating apples, cranberries and gilded walnuts in patterns so intricate that it is hard to believe they are made of real fruit. Longwood Gardens is a magical wonderland during the holidays, but what I love about Longwood is that you can go any time of the year and see something completely new and amazing each season. 5/12
Sports: The WES Running Bee Rundown By Zeke Williams and Connor Walsh The WES 5k and 1-mile Fun Run was on November 12, 2017. It was a cold morning and if you were there you would know how crowded it was. Over 250 people registered for the race! People from Ithan and Radnor Elementary Schools also came. The 5K was 3.1 miles and if you ran it you were tired, right? There were 170 finishers in the 5K and 56 finishers in the 1 Mile Fun Run. Bryn Mawr Racing professionally timed the 5K. All of the 5K runners wore a bib number with an electronic chip. When the runners crossed the finish line, they could instantly see their time. There were lots of sponsors for the run, including Spring Mill Bread Co., Bach to Rock, Foote Orthodontist, Nolan Painting, Bryn Mawr Running Co., The Radnor Hotel,Whole Foods, WAWA, Acme, Christopher s, PatientFirst, Five Below, Amy Shoumer DMD, and The Goat s Beard! Spring Mill Bread Co. had some bread, such as scones for runners to eat after the race, Bach to Rock had some instruments for the kids to play and Nolan Painting had popcorn! Jules Thin Crust and Main Point Books donated a prize each. The 5K course was two loops through some neighborhoods, past the pond and into the blue finish line. For the one mile fun run, first place for a female went to Reece Brown, a second grader, and first place for a male was Luke Adams, a fourth grader! If I wrote your name, then congrats to you! You ran the whole thing if you were one of the winners, and you sprinted to the end. If you did that, perhaps you should consider joining a cross country team. 6/12
As most of you know, if you ran the race there was a chip in your number counting how fast you ran, so even if you came across the finish line first, someone may have gotten a better time than you. If you ran in the race you got a shirt saying the WES Running Bee and Stay Warm with the Swarm. So that s the buzz about the WES 5K. Check out other stories! The fastest WES student in the 5k was Brendan Gray with a time of 21:54. The other top finishers in each grade were: ********** MALE KINDERGARTEN WES ***** Joshua Kim 43:05 ********** MALE 2ND GRADE WES *********** Roman Pena 24:25 ********** FEMALE 2ND GRADE WES *********** Nancy Wible 30:32 ********** MALE 3RD GRADE WES *********** Brendan Gray 21:54 Connor Walsh 23:51 ********** FEMALE 3RD GRADE WES *********** Jane Grifo 33:06 ********** MALE 4TH GRADE WES *********** Chase Dilella 25:27 ********** FEMALE 4TH GRADE WES *********** Catherine Oblack 37:10 ********** MALE 5TH GRADE WES *********** Yiles Flores 23:56 ********** FEMALE 5TH GRADE WES *********** Emma Hyde 23:48 Check out more about the race, including the course map here: https://runsignup.com/race/pa/wayne/wesrunningbee5k Congratulations to all finishers and a special thank you to all parents and teachers who made this race a success! 7/12
Wonder: The Book, The Movie and Being Kind By Orlaith Anne Dill and Elise Claire Flanagan We saw the movie Wonder at the Anthony Wayne Movie Theatre in Wayne the first Saturday after it came out, November 18, 2017. The movie was directed by Stephen Chbosky, and is based on a book by R. J. Palacio. It was an interesting and sad movie. Orlaith would say the movie Wonder was the best movie she s ever seen. Elise says it was most depressing and awesome movie she ever seen. Although it is sad, Wonder is a meaningful movie. It is about a boy named August who has a deformed face. He gets bullied at his new school because of the way he looks. He basically has only one friend whose name is Jack Will. When they go on a field trip, August gets bullied in the woods by seventh graders. August s enemy stuck up for him in the fight and then they became friends. Their friendship made people notice that August was a very kind person and they didn t care about how his face looked. This movie is about how we shouldn t judge people on their outside appearance, but we should care about their inside feelings. We won t tell you the ending because we don t want to ruin the movie for you, but we will tell you that it is a very happy ending. We do have to mention that Elise s dad bawled the entire movie and it was sort of embarrassing! We would highly recommend that you go see this movie. As the holiday season is upon us, this is good time to think about being kind to everyone and to not judge a book by its cover! 8/12
Tis the Season for the Nutcracker By Tate Marcinkoski On Dec. 16 and 17, Wayne Ballet will present its annual production of The Nutcracker at Upper Merion Middle School in King of Prussia. The two-act show will star student dancers of all ages including a few from our own school. For many people, attending a performance of this classic ballet is a holiday tradition. Featuring music by the famous Russian composer Tchaikovsky, the ballet was first performed in 1892 in St. Petersburg, Russia. Today, 125 years later, it is still performed by dance groups all over the world during the Christmas season. The Nutcracker tells the story of a young girl named Clara, who is celebrating Christmas Eve with her family. During a party that night, Clara s mysterious godfather, Drosselmeyer, who is a toymaker, gives her a wooden nutcracker in the shape of a man. Later after everyone has gone to bed, Clara goes to check on the nutcracker, when she hears the clock strike midnight. Mice and soldiers suddenly fill the room and begin to battle. The nutcracker magically grows in size and defeats the evil Mouse King. Then the nutcracker comes alive, turning into a real man, and takes Clara on a journey through his snowy kingdom to the Land of Sweets. There, they watch a series of dances inspired by different sweets from around the world such as chocolate, candy canes and marzipan. My favorite part is the dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. She wears a glittery tutu and performs one of the most famous solos in all of ballet. Most of you would probably recognize her music, which sounds like tiny bells chiming, because it is played everywhere at Christmas time. I definitely recommend that you check out The Nutcracker this year. Even if you are not a ballet fan, you will enjoy all of the beautiful music, scenery, costumes and of course the exciting story. 9/12
Fidget Spinner vs Fidget Cube By Lilah Kenny I have interviewed about 10 kids and my family about what they like better, fidget spinners or fidget cubes. A lot of people love fidget spinners because they twirl like a merry-go-round and you can do amazing tricks with it. It is also supposed to calm you when you are stressed. However, fidget cubes got a lot of votes because it is new and improved and people like pushing the cold buttons and it entertains them. In fact, some people voted for fidget cube even when they did not have them. How weird is that? But everyone voted for fidget cube and to prove it see my other article about the top holiday gifts for kids. 10/12
Shopping for Toys this Holiday Season By Lilah Kenny When it comes to December people think of Christmas, Hanukkah, Santa, gifts and Christmas trees. Especially the gift part the malls are blazing with people during the holidays. Some toys sell out fast, better get in the stores before everything is out. Everyone loves presents and they love family. There are lots of new toys in stores. For example, at toysrus.com, there are top new arrivals, here is what we found. Nintendo Switch Space POP Toys LEGO Batman Movie WWE LEGO Dimensions Fidget Cube Also RC Drones are on the what s hot list, and these Hatchimals, LEGO, Shopkins, NERF, and Paw Patrol. There are so many things you can get but you better be good. Santa s watching. 11/12
5 Holiday Movies WES is Buzzing About By Tate Marcinkoski If you re looking for a relaxing break from all the holiday parties, baking, shopping and gift wrapping, why not curl up on the couch and watch a classic seasonal movie? There are many fun holiday films to choose from, but I narrowed it down my five favorites. Grab your popcorn and some hot chocolate! 1. Elf Accidentally raised with Santa s elves at the North Pole, Buddy returns to New York to find his real father and has some hilarious adventures along the way. 2. The Polar Express A magical train arrives in the middle of the night to take a young boy on an unforgettable journey to the North Pole. 3. How the Grinch Stole Christmas The evil Grinch tries to stop Christmas from coming in Whoville but discovers that the holiday is about much more than just presents and stuff. 4. Home Alone When Kevin mistakenly gets left home alone while his family travels to Paris, he bravely defends his home by outsmarting a pair of burglars. 5. A Charlie Brown Christmas Charlie Brown isn t really feeling the holiday cheer until his friends show him the true meaning of Christmas. 12/12